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Looked innocent enough. Little did I know when I walked in they would be selling GOLLYWOGS!!!***!!*!

My heart sank when I spotted them. And suddenly the small gift shop felt even smaller and tight as if all of the air has been sucked out of it when I inwardly gasped. I remained cool though and, in Swedish, asked my Swede to take a picture of the Gollywogs while I continued my I’m just looking lap around the store.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a box of Gollywogs before.

Maybe it was my imagination but it felt like I was invisible, at least no one wanted to let me pass easily as I slinked around the shoppers looking at rows and rows of British beach pier souvenir junk. I was the only black person in the store. Just me and the box of Gollywogs. I wondered if they were invisible too to did people come in looking to buy a Gollywog when they visit the seaside.

When we got outside I remarked, that was some racists sh*t (or something to that effect). My Swede asked why I didn’t say anything to the store owners. I replied, no, I’ll blog about it. This is why my non-profit is needed. We need a directory for black women across Europe so no one ever feels alone.

Freelance Writer, Producer, Social Entrepreneur

Board Member

Irene Opira is the founder of the groundbreaking Maisha African Diaspora Awards in Sweden. She is also the founder and owner of the Miss Africa Sweden brand, working to promote healthy ideals in the beauty industry and create diversity. Irene has been the producer and concept developer for both initiatives since inception.

Irene Opira holds a Bachelors’s degree in the Social Sciences and a Masters in Social Anthropology from Stockholm University.

She has worked in both government institutions as well as civil society organizations with a focus on human rights including minority rights, the human rights of children, women empowerment and diversity. Irene has also served as board member in various organizations such as Noaks Ark Stockholm and the Swedish Women’s Lobby.

Editor’s note: While this article is 8 months old it highlights the need for organizations like ours and why compiling a directory that supports black women across Europe is critical work. Help us by submitting the names and website links of those organizations that are missing from our directory to contact@bwiesmg.org. Thank you.

Black woman inundated with racist abuse while tweeting for @Ireland

A black British woman who was chosen to tweet from the @ireland account for a week has been subjected to a barrage of racist abuse, forcing her to take a break from Twitter.

Michelle Marie took over the account – which is curated by a different Twitter user in Ireland each week – on Monday. She introduced herself as a mother, blogger and plus-size model.

Originally from Oxford in England, she wrote she had settled in Ireland and “it has my heart”.

However, just hours after taking over the profile – which is followed by nearly 40,000 people – the abuse began.

Michelle Marie has been subjected to a torrent of racial abuse on Twitter. Photograph: Michelle Marie/Twitter

Marie received a lot of tweets of support, with many users urging her to report the abuse and block the users responsible.

She posted a statement saying that while she had expected

“trolls, backlash and criticism”

she had experienced

“racism, sexism, fatophobia and homophobia to a degree I have never known.”

After

“8hrs of non-stop hate”

she said she was hurt, shocked and appalled but promised she would try again tomorrow.

Marie told the Guardian that the experience had been upsetting.

“I’m saddened that such extreme racism and vitriol is still rife. I am fortunate that experiencing this level of hate is a rarity, but for too many it’s a daily reality,”

Her work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Travel + Leisure, Slate, Travel Channel, Lonely Planet, Fodor’s, National Geographic Channel, several in-flight magazines, amongst others. She was in South Africa on a photography assignment for National Geographic Channel and was featured in a vignette called “Through The Lens” which airs on Nat Geo channel across the globe.

She also owns and runs Geotraveler Media – a multimedia and travel consulting firm providing a spectrum of travel media-related services from writing and photography to web design and social media. She is editor-in-chief of Slow Travel Stockholm – an editorial site which encourages travelers to explore Stockholm deeper and slowly.

She is also a founding member of the Nordic Travel Bloggers (NordicTB) collective which brings together the top professional travel influencers and digital storytellers in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.

Board Member

Kathy Thompson is a former classical, neo-contemporary and modern professional dancer. Amsterdam (Scapino). She performed with the Basel Ballet, Switzerland, Cie Nomads, Vevey, Switzerland, Phillip Trehét, LeHarv, France, Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany, and Dortmund Stadtheater, Germany.

Board Member

A native of Gambia, Daphne Norman-Sandberg has called Sweden home since she was two years old.

After earning a Business Administration degree from the University of Gothenburg Daphne spent 24 years as a Social Worker and Human Resources Champion fighting to prevent sexual violence against women and children. She was an advisor to the Swedish Delegation to the UN Commission for the Elimination of Discrimination Again Women in 2010.

She is the proud mother of 3, grandmother of 1 and foster mother to over 40 children from various backgrounds. Somehow, she has found the time to fuel her love of travel. In addition to her monthly trips to the UK to visit the Gambian community, her travels have included visits to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Poland, Iceland and all 3 Baltic States.

Vice Chair

photo credit Bente Jæger

Lesley-Ann Brown is a Trinidadian-American author, freelance journalist, activist and poet. Her recent work examines methods of decolonial narratives fused with political activism. She´s one of the co-founders of Say It Loud, a spoken-word-poetry collective, consisting of Black women poets in Copenhagen, Denmark. Say It Loud is now the R.A.M. Poetry collective (Random Access Memory). Brown has been featured and invited to participate in a range of events, including BE.BOP 2016 Black Europe Body Politics, in Berlin and Copenhagen, and she was one of the panelists in and organizers for the first ever Women of Color Panel in Denmark .

Brown attended the New School for Social Research’s Eugene Lang College where she studied Writing & Literature. She later went on to work in New York publishing while freelancing for various magazines. Her move to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1999 inspired her to create the blog www.blackgirlonmars.com – which she has since retired. She´s currently working on a memoir entitled ‘Decolonial Daughter’, to be published in the UK in Spring, 2018 by Repeater Books.

Board Member & Treasurer

Photo credit A.G.

Jonas Lind is a career Military Officer with over 35 years of service to Sweden. During his career he has moved from the Platoon, Company, Brigade and Joint Staff levels on Gotland, Halmstad, Stockholm, and England. He has been a popular instructor, mentor, and lecturer and is an avid reader and visitor of historic sights.

He brings his unique Swedish perspective, level-headedness, and talent for forward thinking to our Board.

Membership in Black Women In Europe™Social Media Group is open to all black women in Europe and others who share the ideals and goals of Black Women In Europe™Social Media Group. For these purposes, a black woman is defined as having African descent.

We will initiate the application process in 2017. If you would like to receive information email contact@bwiesmg.org and ask to be placed on our mailing list.